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NASA News

HOUSTON – Preparations for landing take center stage today as the astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour get set to wrap up a two-week flight that added the last components of the U.S. section of the International Space Station.

Today’s wakeup call, at 2:15 p.m., was “The Distance” by Cake, played for all six astronauts from their flight control team in the Mission Control Center in Houston.

Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialist Stephen Robinson will berth the shuttle’s robotic arm before joining Commander George Zamka for the routine pre-landing checkout of Endeavour flight control system and reaction control system. They will manipulate all of the flight control surfaces and then test fire each of the reaction control system jets to make sure both of those systems are in good shape to support entry and landing.

Later in the day those three will join Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken to pack up the crew cabin for the first landing attempt, at 9:16 p.m. Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting.

Tonight at 8:49 p.m. the six Endeavour astronauts will talk about their flight in interviews with CNN, CNN Español, and Univision.

Aboard the International Space Station the crew’s work day is being shifted to its normal cycle. The next wakeup call for Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineers Max Suraev, Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi and T.J. Creamer is 12:00 a.m. Sunday.

The next status report will be issued after the crew work day, or earlier if events warrant.